The EU will allocate €230 million to counter the outbreak of a novel coronavirus. The European Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarcic, announced, TASS reports.
As it was explained in a statement by the European Commission, €114 million will be transferred to the World Health Organization (WHO), other €15 million — to Africa to prevent the spread of the virus.
In addition, €100 million are allocated for vaccine production and research projects. Other 3 million will be directed to the work of the EU civil protection mechanism to return community citizens from Wuhan, which has become the center of the epidemic.
Janez Lenarcic stressed that the EU was concerned about the situation with the outbreak of coronavirus in Italy (according to recent data, the number of infected has reached 210, four people have died), but has not yet taken drastic measures.
«At this point, WHO does not recommend restrictions on travel or trade. EU measures should be proportionate and coordinated,» he said, adding that the WHO mission would go to Italy on February 25 to assess the situation on the ground.
Answering the question of journalists whether the outbreak of the new coronavirus will affect the economy of the European Union, Janez Lenarcic answered positively, but said that it was too early to talk about specific figures.
